Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“You can finish your chores later,” she told her, rolling up the maps and fastening each with a rubber band. “Help me load stuff into the truck. We’re headed into town.”
It might not have been intended as punishment, but when Ren’s parents pointed to a bench outside the realty office and told her to stay put until they were done, it certainly felt like one.
The Realtor’s office was in the same tiny storefront as that of the seamstress and the notary, because they were all the same person. Just next door was the bakery owned by Miss Jules, who also doubled as childcare for a handful of younger kids in the area.
Until recently, Ren’s tiny town was the only one she’d ever known; seeing it with new eyes was disorienting. The turnoff from the highway to Main Street had always been exciting. She liked the people, liked seeing how the storefronts slowly changed, liked the novelty of being somewhere different, even if she’d been there a hundred times. Now she imagined Edward sitting next to her and trying to understand how on earth people lived someplace so isolated. For the first time she saw the dents and scuffed paint, the cracked asphalt and crooked shop signs. There was no Starbucks or twenty-four-hour anything. It felt claustrophobic with its cracked one-lane road and single, swinging traffic light. Edward didn’t belong in a place like this. He wouldn’t fit; he’d be too big and worldly for her sleepy town. And the more she thought about it, the more she wondered if she’d grown too big for it, too. With a population in the low triple digits, everyone there knew everyone else and could spot a stranger the second they stepped foot on Main Street. Even a private letter in the mail didn’t go unnoticed.
Mail…
The word poked at the back of her head as her gaze swept to the five-and-dime, just across the street. Ren paused, awareness landing. At the very least she needed to let Edward know that she was okay. She didn’t have a phone and wouldn’t know his number even if she had one. As long as she was here, her parents controlled every aspect of her life, but there was one thing they couldn’t shut down. If she hurried, there might be time.
Knowing the trouble she’d be in if she left without alerting someone, Ren ducked into the bakery. “Miss Jules?” she called out. “If you see my parents, can you let them know I ran into Jesse and Tammy’s shop for a minute and will be right back?”
Jules looked up from her game show reruns and gave Ren an arthritic thumbs-up. “’Course, Ren.”
She jogged across the street and ducked into the dark interior of the little store. Soft country music played from a set of speakers attached to ceiling tiles overhead, and Ren scanned the aisles, spotting Tammy where she was on a stepladder stocking an endcap with canned beans and a sign that advertised a buy two, get one free sale.
“Tammy!” she said brightly. “Hi!”
“Ren! Oh my goodness! Look at you!” Tammy climbed down and pulled Ren in for a hug. “You look like a real college girl!”
“Just the same old Ren from a couple weeks ago,” she said, laughing.
“No way.” Tammy held her by the shoulders at arm’s length, “There’s something in your eyes that wasn’t there before.”
Ren was sure Tammy was right.
Hooking her thumb over her shoulder, Ren asked, “My folks are over at Belinda’s. Would it be okay if I used the restroom?”
“Of course you can, sugar. Come on, let’s grab the key.”
As she followed Tammy through the store and down a narrow hall to the back office, Tammy talked about all the town happenings since Ren last saw her—the new hair salon that opened down the street, Jules’s new scone recipe, and Old Donny’s run-in with a moose. The office was a small room with an ancient copy machine and a long table in the center littered with signs and labels and small boxes of supplies. Easter bunting adorned a robin’s-egg-blue refrigerator, its surface littered with schedules and random flyers. Two desks were pushed against opposite walls. Softly humming on one of them was a computer.
Tammy pulled a bright orange coiled key ring from a hook just inside the door and handed it to Ren. “Here you go.”
Ren took the key with a smile.
“I think there’s some Girl Scout Cookies in the freezer if you’re hungry,” Tammy said. The bell over the front door rang, and the older woman squeezed Ren’s shoulder. “Help yourself, Ren. Good to see you, sweetie.”
Ren smiled at her retreating form but, instead of heading to the bathroom, moved straight to the old computer.
She’d been in this room hundreds of times over the years doing odd jobs for Tammy and Jesse, so she entered the password from memory, waited for the browser to open, and quickly logged into the Corona student portal. Ren’s email address at the Corona College domain was rgylden and she assumed all students had the same format, so she was going to try him at efitzsimmons and hope it worked. But the second she opened her email, her eyes immediately settled on a message at the top from Dr. Audran, with the word URGENT in the subject line.